YCH collaborates with Ningbo government to establish China's major Wine Hub gateway

Aug 10, 2011 12:00:00 AM

YCH collaborates with Ningbo government to establish
China's major Wine Hub gateway

- Rising consumption affluence in China calls for more efficient wine logistics infrastructure and service offerings to meet the increasing sophistication of China's liquor culture

Shanghai, CHINA, 10 August 2011 - Leading Singapore-based logistics and supply chain management (SCM) company YCH Group ("YCH") today signed an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Ningbo Free Trade Zone Administrative Committee ("NFTZ") to officiate a mutual commitment to develop Ningbo city as a major Wine Hub gateway for Greater China. The MOU was signed at the Seminar for 'Ningbo integration into Shanghai �as Financial and Logistics Centre' held at the Shangri-La Pudong Shanghai Hotel, where Ningbo Municipal Party Secretary Wang Huizhong, Ningbo Mayor Liu Qi and Shanghai Vice Mayor Tu Guangshao were among the various distinguished VIPs witnessing the milestone event.

The Joint Venture between NFTZ and YCH will see a strategic collaboration to offer and operate a state-of-the-art, temperature-controlled wine logistics facility within the Ningbo Free Trade Zone area - the only Free Trade Zone within the entire Zhejiang province servicing its neighbouring cities such as Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Jiaxing, Wenzhou, Jinhua and Taizhou. Offering end-to-end SCM services spanning the whole range of warehousing, distribution, freight management, customs brokerage, documentation, import/export clearance and other logistics value-added activities, the 'one-stop' hub is expected to go live sometime in the latter half of 2012.

The event was held in Shanghai, at a high level ceremony where Ningbo and Shanghai top government officials meet to discuss the integration of key growth drivers such as finance and logistics

As a leading SCM player with extensive experience distributing wines and spirits in the Asia Pacific region, YCH's expertise and niche in wine logistics was the critical factor that encouraged NFTZ to court YCH to join forces in the design and development of Ningbo's symbolic wine hub. In addition, YCH was also chosen by the Ningbo government to further buttress its well-known standing as a wine gateway due to its comprehensive network and in-depth last mile reach that penetrates the entire Chinese hinterland, especially within the Eastern China region.

China's growing consumption affluence and sophistication of its luxury F&B sector has greatly stimulated trade imports and exports of wines and other alcoholic products in recent years. Industry experts say that China is now the world's seventh largest consumer of wine in terms of volume, and is likely to become the sixth largest by 2014. As the largest high-end imported wine center of Zhejiang province, Ningbo plays a highly critical role in ensuring orderly trade flows and logistics efficiency as the major importer and exporter of both domestic and foreign liquor products.

Given the mounting concerns of food safety and security in China, the partnership will also provide an added level of confidence to end consumers who purchase or obtain wine products that are distributed via the YCH-NFTZ wine hub. To a large extent, this will help eradicate the possibility for counterfeit wine products to hit the market as all wines handled by YCH within the NFTZ will be given a government-endorsed stamp of authenticity.

With various accreditations from the local Customs authorities in key cities such as Tianjin, Shanghai, Kunshan and Xiamen, YCH's recognized forte, level of quality, integrity and impeccable accuracy in customs clearance and declaration will further ensure that wine producers and distributors are able to benefit from higher levels of productivity and speed-to-market. Additionally, NFTZ has also requested for YCH to integrate its proprietary, advanced track and trace capabilities and optimization systems, to introduce its best practices in IT and security know-how to manage these high-value products.

Building on its dynamic growth momentum in China, this collaboration announcement to enhance Ningbo city's reputation and service offerings as a key wine hub gateway comes on the back of YCH's partnership with the Kunshan Lujia County Government to establish YCH's emblematic City Supply Chain ("CSC") services for Kunshan satellite city last month.

YCH is one of the pioneer Singapore firms to enter the Chinese market, in Shanghai in the mid 1990s. It has since built a comprehensive logistics network in the country with presence in gateway cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Kunshan, Xiamen, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Macau and Hong Kong servicing MNC customers such as Dell, Motorola, Compal, Samsung and Mary Kay. Recent developments in YCH's Greater China network include the launch of the highly advanced, RFID-powered 465,000 square feet YCH DistriPark in Shanghai Yangshan Free Port in October last year, as well as the announcement of a partnership with the Xiamen Port Development to launch a 609,000 square feet XPD-YCH DistriPark in Xiamen, China to become the Centre of Excellence for VMI and ODM Capabilities, providing AIO (All-In-One) logistics solution for world-class companies.

About Ningbo Free Trade Zone

Ningbo Free Trade Zone is one of the 15 free trade zones authorized by the State Council of China, and is the only free trade zone in Zhejiang Province. It was established by the State Council in 1992, covering an administrative area of 2.3 square kilometers. It lies in the middle of the coastline of Mainland China, at the south of Yangtze River Delta. In 2008, its industrial output value was RMB 53.33 billion and grew at 19.8% from 2007.

Ningbo Free Trade Zone focuses on the imports of wines, fresh fruit produce, ships, metals, chemicals and medical instruments among others. Situated in a prime location adjacent to the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, which is the second largest port in China, the Ningbo Free Trade Zone highway is directly connected to various key national highways and railways. Four international airports, i.e. Lishe, Xiaoshan, Hongqiao and Pudong airports can also be reached within half to three hours by car from Ningbo.

About YCH Group

Founded in 1955, YCH Group is the leading integrated end-to-end supply chain management and logistics partner to some of the world's largest companies, including Dell, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Exxon Mobil, Unilever, LVMH and Royal FrieslandCampina. YCH Group's suite of innovative award-winning end-to-end supply chain management solutions - Intribution™, Intrabution™, Retrogistics™, Y-Merge™ and V-Hub™ - employ cutting edge web-technologies that are best-in-class across industry clusters from consumer and electronics to chemical and healthcare, to deliver powerful competitive advantages for customers. The Singapore-based company currently operates throughout Asia-Pacific, including Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Australia, China, India, Vietnam and Korea.

A strong proponent of innovation, YCH is recognized for its 7PL™ approach in seamlessly integrating supply chain strategy with execution to attain success in the SCM industry. YCH attained the highly-regarded Singapore Innovation Class in October 2005 and clinched Top Honours as Winner of the IDC Enterprise Innovation Awards 2010. As a forerunner in worldwide supply chain security, YCH is the first recipient of the ISO 28000: 2007 certification for excellent security management in the global SCM industry. YCH also won the prestigious National Infocomm Award 2008 for its RFID-enabled 'High Performance Supply Chain Nerve Centre' and was conferred the 'Asian 3PL of the Year' award by Supply Chain Asia for four consecutive times from 2007 to 2010. More recently, YCH was named 'Most Admired Large Enterprise (Innovation)' in the high-level ASEAN Business Awards 2010 and 'Enterprise of the Year' at the Singapore Business Awards 2011.